Elute Intelligence Holdings  has launched a dedicated free-to-use online COVID-19 Document Reader to help scientists worldwide tackling the disease to find vital research more rapidly.

The COVID-19 Document Reader draws on Elute’s novel advanced software tools to intelligently search large and complex databases to identify relevant information swiftly and effectively.  It is available at https://elute.info.

The databases being used include a subset of PubMed, an online resource of more than 30 million citations for papers drawn from Medline, life science journals, books and other sources.  Researchers will be able to search this for articles mentioning terms related to the current COVID-19 outbreak, such as coronavirus, COVID, MERS, or SARS. Elute is proactively working with researchers to identify additional datasets.

Elute’s artificial intelligence searches, compares and analyses documents to identify similarities between them by mimicking the way people read. Researchers enter an entire paper already identified as of interest to find other relevant research. They can also create their own documents defining their own interests to enter into the Document Reader to refine searches still further.

This means the approach is very different to conventional keyword or Boolean search technologies.   A patent application has been filed to protect developments of the technology.

Elute is already talking to a number of partners to support and publicise the COVID-19 Document Reader.

Elute was incorporated last year from an existing UK business CFL Software Limited and included complementary intellectual property developed by Frontier IP. Existing customers include the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (“UCAS”) which is using a version of the software called Copycatch to detect plagiarism in students’ personal statements. Others include academic institutions, commercial researchers and lawyers.